Tag Archives: election

Final campaigning in Tbilisi mayoral election

OCT. 27 2021 (The Bulletin) — Rivals Kakha Kaladze of the Georgian Dream party and Nika Melia of the United National Movement party held their final rallies before an election on Oct. 30 to become the mayor of Tbilisi. This runoff election was triggered because Mr Kaladze, the incumbent, failed to win more than 50% of the vote in the first round of the election earlier in October.

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— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Mirziyoyev wins Uzbek presidential elections

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TASHKENT/OCT. 24/25 2021 (The Bulletin) — Shavkat Mirziyoyev won a presidential election in Uzbekistan with 80% of the vote in a process that Western observers said lacked genuine competition.

Speaking at a carefully stage-managed victory rally at the headquarters of his Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party, the usually somnolent Mr Mirziyoyev pushed a triumphant and upbeat message.

“I promise to make every effort and potential to justify the high trust of our people, to fulfil their dreams and aspirations, to ensure a prosperous life. We will all build a new Uzbekistan together,” he said.

In front of him dozens of teenagers wearing blue baseball caps and white t-shirts emblazoned with ‘Mirziyoyev’ waved and cheered.

This is Mr Mirziyoyev’s second term in office. He took over in 2016 from the reclusive and cankerous Islam Karimov. He has since opened up the economy, scrapped complicated dual currency rules and allowed foreign companies to invest and upgrade the country’s infrastructure.

Observers have generally applauded his efforts, although human rights and media activists have said that more needs to be done. Mr Mirziyoyev was PM under Karimov.

Under Uzbekistan’s constitution, the 64-year-old Mr Mirziyoyev is allowed to serve two consecutive terms as president, although this provision was ignored by Karimov.

After the vote on Oct. 24, Western election observers said that although democratic progress had been made, the election fell short of being genuinely competitive.

“The campaign was low-key in all regions as well as online. Although there were five candidates, the campaign was not truly competitive as there was no direct meaningful or genuine engagement between them, and with the citizens,” the OSCE’s vote monitoring unit ODHIR said.

It has never judged an election in Uzbekistan to be free or fair, unlike its CIS counterparts who approved the vote.

Mr Mirziyoyev’s 80% win was down from 2016 when he won with 90%.

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— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Armenia’s renainssance man

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>> Robert Kocharyan, Armenia’s former president, has emerged as the main rival to PM Nikol Pashinyan in a parliamentary election on June 20, writes James Kilner

Even for Armenia’s chaotic political landscape, Robert Kocharyan has had an extraordinary six months.

JUNE 8 2021 (The Bulletin) — At the beginning of the year he was on trial, accused of corruption and the unlawful killings of 10 protesters in 2008 when he was Armenia’s outgoing president. Now, on the eve of a parliamentary election, he has emerged as the main rival to PM Nikol Pashinyan.

The June 20 election is an important one for Armenia as it will shape how the country recovers from losing a war to Azerbaijan for the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh last year. There is a plethora of candidates but analysts say that only two really matter.

Pashinyan is a former journalist who seized power in a popular revolution in 2018 but is now blamed for the disastrous six-week war that ended in November. His My Step Alliance holds 88 seats in Armenia’s current 132-seat parliament, the maximum two-thirds majority that the biggest party is allowed, and he is likely to win the most seats again but, importantly, possibly fall short of a majority.

This is where Kocharyan could come through, as he is regarded as the likely leader of a potential coalition that could form an alternative government.

It’s a remarkable turnaround for Armenia’s second post-Soviet leader. He was president between 1998 and 2008, overseeing an economic boom but also, according to his rivals, a rise in corruption. He handed over power to Serzh Sargsyan in 2008 who was then overthrown by Pashinyan. In 2019, prosecutors charged Kocharyan with corruption and the unlawful killing of anti-government demonstrators 11 years earlier, accusations which he said were politically motivated. In March this year, Armenia’s Constitutional Court agreed and threw them out.

As they say, politics in Armenia is personal.

Kocharyan has rebuilt his appeal by presenting himself as a no-nonsense hero from Armenia’s first war in the 1990s for Nagorno-Karabakh, where he was born, a competent alternative to the firebrand Pashinyan.

Pashinyan, in his election posters, styles himself as the suited establishment incumbent. He stares placidly away from onlookers, as if avoiding their gaze.

Kocharyan’s posters, by contrast, show him tieless, sleeves rolled-up, staring straight ahead. A man on a mission.

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— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Kocharyan promises to secure Armenia’s borders if he wins election

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JUNE 7 2021 (The Bulletin) — Robert Kocharyan, Armenia’s former president and now the head of an opposition party that is trying to unseat PM Nikol Pashinyan, promised to secure the country’s borders if he won a parliamentary election on June 20. Armenia’s election will shape the country for the next few years.

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— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Uzbekistan moves election forward to October

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FEB. 9 2021 (The Bulletin) — Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree into law that will shift a presidential election this year to October from December. Lawmakers said that they wanted the election date shifted to October because the cold winter may deter people from voting. Uzbekistan’s presidential election is now scheduled for Oct. 24.

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— This story was first published in issue 471 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Armenian ruling party says it will consider early election in 6 months

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FEB. 8 2021 (The Bulletin) — Armenia’s ruling party, the My Way faction, said that it would consider an early parliamentary election in six months time, once the country had completed a plan put forward by PM Nikol Pashinyan to stabilise the country after losing a war against Azerbaijan for control of Nagorno-Karabakh. Protesters have been calling for Mr Pashinyan, who took power in a revolution in 2018, to resign.

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— This story was first published in issue 471 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Comment: New year starts off with new elections in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan

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JAN. 8 2021 (The Bulletin) — So, the New Year is set to start in Central Asia with two political stability tests. A parliamentary election in Kazakhstan and a presidential election in Kyrgyzstan, both scheduled for Jan. 10, will provide early litmus tests on the stability of both countries and also the popularity of their current governments.

In both countries the incumbents will win. Parties supporting Pres. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will win a majority in the Kazakh parliament, as they always do, and Kyrgyzstan’s Acting-President Sadyr Japrov will win a contest to be sworn in as full president for a single seven-year term.

Neither elections are good adverts for democracy in the region. Opposition groups have effectively been banned from standing in the Kazakh election, and there is a chance that protests will occur in an increasingly restless Almaty.

In Kyrgyzstan, Japarov will be elected on a popular ticket but he is also using his popularity to bend Kyrgyzstan’s constitution to his will. People in Kyrgyzstan will be asked to vote on two issues on Jan. 10. As well as who they want to become president, voters will have to vote on whether they want to change the country’s constitution, as pushed for by Japarov, to boost the power of the president at the expense of parliament.

This is where the controversy lies. By pushing for these tweaks, Japarov, who was freed from jail during a coup in October and quickly installed as Acting-President, is essentially tearing up a constitution sponsored by the West and adopted after a revolution in 2010. It was supposed to safeguard democracy in Kyrgyzstan and turn it into a beacon for the rights of ordinary people in a region dominated by autocrats. Instead it looks to be heading to the scrap heap.

Western influence in Kyrgyzstan has diminished and shrivelled since the US withdrew its airbase from outside Bishkek in 2014. During the coup in October, Western diplomats had to look on, warning of the threat to democracy by the ascent of Japarov through street-level politics. Now they are looking on as he manipulates the constitution to strengthen his position.

Japarov has argued that the parliamentary democracy system was imposed on Kyrgyzstan by well-meaning but misguided intelligentsia types who lived in central Bishkek and didn’t understand the country. He said that Kyrgyzstan was too young to adopt parliamentary democracy. There may be some truth in this but more accurate may be that the country is just too corrupt and the West didn’t put in the effort to ensure the survival of the political system that it advocated.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Armenia reports most cases of the coronavirus

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APRIL 5 (The Bulletin) — Armenia has the most reported cases of the coronavirus in any country in the Central Asia and South Caucasus region. It has now said that there are 822 cases in Armenia and that seven people have died.

The Armenia-administered territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan also claims sovereignty over, held elections despite the spread of the coronavirus (March 31). Two candidates who back Mr Pashinyan will go into a final round of voting , set for for April 14.

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Tajikistan holds a one-sided parliamentary election

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MARCH 1 2020 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan held a parliamentary election that generated, as expected, a clear win for the party of President Imomali Rakhmon. Tajik police had arrested hundreds of opposition supporters, mainly pious Muslims, in the run-up to the election. This, opponents of Mr Rakhmon said, was a state-sponsored effort to sideline opposition.
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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Georgian government and opposition restart election reform talks

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FEB. 27 2020 (The Bulletin) — Mediated by the US embassy in Tbilisi, the Georgian Dream coalition government and Georgian opposition parties re-started stalled negotiations on electoral reform. There had been four previous rounds of negotiations from November when the Georgian Dream downgraded efforts to bring in proportional representation ahead of a parliamentary election this year. The opposition walked out of talks at the start of February after the detention of one of its leaders.
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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin